Me and My Name

By Mary Jane Miller

Book Overview

Do recent changes in American law and politics mean that our national motto -- e pluribus unum -- is at last becoming a reality? Lawrence H. Fuchs searches for answers to this question by examining the historical patterns of American ethnicity and the ways in which a national political culture has evolved to accommodate ethnic diversity. Fuchs looks first at white European immigrants, showing how most of them and especially their children became part of a unifying political culture. He also describes the ways in which systems of coercive pluralism kept persons of color from fully participating in the civic culture. He documents the dismantling of those systems and the emergence of a more inclusive and stronger civic culture in which voluntary pluralism flourishes. In comparing past patterns of ethnicity in America with those of today, Fuchs finds reasons for optimism. Diversity itself has become a unifying principle, and Americans now celebrate ethnicity. One encouraging result is the acculturation of recent immigrants from Third World countries. But Fuchs also examines the tough issues of racial and ethnic conflict and the problems of the ethno-underclass, the new outsiders. The American Kaleidoscope ends with a searching analysis of public policies that protect individual rights and enable ethnic diversity to prosper. Because of his lifelong involvement with issues of race relations and ethnicity, Lawrence H. Fuchs is singularly qualified to write on a grand scale about the interdependence in the United States of the unum and the pluribus. His book helps to clarify some difficult issues that policymakers will surely face in the future, such as those dealing with immigration, language, and affirmative action.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670831964
• ISBN13: 9780670831968
• Release Date: October 1990
• Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
• Length: 121 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.5" x 5.5"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

This is a GREAT book!

Erin is in the sixth grade. She has do decide whether or not to be adopted by her stepfather and change her last name or keep her biological father's last name. She also has to decide which guy to chase after! A smart and funny guy, Ryan? Or, the popular Jock, Richard? Find out if she accepts a dare from Kim, the most popular girl in school. Does peer pressure effect her decision?

What's in a Name?

Erin Mitchell has to make a lot of choices;Should she choose Truth or Dare? Who does she like more, Ryan Williams, or Richard Frazier? And does she want to make her mom and stepfather happy by changing her name to match her family's? Although her mom won't let her wear eyeshadow, she'll let her make a possible life changing decision. Told in the eyes of an eleven year old girl, this book will really make you wonder what's in name like you never did before.